Meet Turtle

Turtle is the newest member of the Braemel household. We adopted him yesterday from a rescue group where he’s been looking for a home for over two years, almost his entire life.

Why is he called Turtle? Because of his coloring. He has this neat almost black stripe down his spine, and then fine stripes down his side, so if you look at him from above it looks like he’s got a shell. (We didn’t decide upon the name, his foster mother did, and she asked that we not change his name. Which we are happy to agree to. After Storm, Spike and Seamus, we’re quite pleased to have a pet with a name that doesn’t start with S.)

How’s Turtle taking to Seamus? Turtle was used to dogs, that was one of the things we made sure of before we adopted him and just stalks right on by poor whimpering and shaking-because-he’s-so-excited Seamus. Oh, he’s gone up and sniffed him and been nose-to-nose with the poor puppy, and then walked away, tail twitching high in the air as if to taunt Seamus.

For our part, we’re having fun comparing how smart cats are to how dumb Seamus is. When he’s tired of Seamus trailing him, Turtle will jump up on one of the dining room chairs. Even though Turtle’s tail and rear end shows from beneath the table cloth, Seamus can’t think three dimension and only looks at his own level, instead of looking up. It’s hilarious to watch him go around and around, passing right beneath and by the cat without realizing Turtle’s right there.

Fingers crossed they’ll soon be cuddling up together in Seamus bed. Which Turtle has already claimed as his own…

Perched on my office windowsill, watching as I type this.

Examining my table top water fountain–he’s especially intrigued by the waterwheel.